Page 21 of Blood of the Stars

She lifted her head, eyes slitted with her discomfort as she tried to focus on him. “Help me.”

The pitiful request snapped Gaeren into motion. Intruder or not, he wasn’t about to let her suffer. He reached for his waterskin, holding it out as a peace offering.

“I’m sorry; I can’t heal you. I’m not a somatic progeny. But I have water.”

When she didn’t move, he slowly lifted the flap, then tipped the skin forward as she tilted her head back. As she drank, he automatically scanned her neck for the cord of a starlock, but there was none.

Her vulnerability confused him after he’d watched her still form, frozen as if dead, be saturated with light and…life. There was no other way to explain it. Her body had been temporarily lifeless, and then her soul had returned.

The light…

It was too coincidental that her strange magic had brought her to life just after the light he’d seen as a child. Did she know something about the starbridge?

“Bamboo Island,” the woman croaked out once she’d had her fill.

Gaeren stood a little taller. The small island was one of many stops he made along the western coast of Vendaras. It wasn’t as far as Valorian or Lovers’ Falls. And it had been handwritten in The Sins of the Stars.

He squinted toward the southern provinces, mapping out the trajectory of the light he’d seen. It could have gone to Bamboo Island.

“Is Bamboo Island where the light went?” he asked.

She nodded, licking her lips. “Can you—can you get me there?”

The desperate request gave him certainty. She wanted to find the starbridge just as much as he did.

“Who are you?” he asked. Underneath a faded cloak, she wore a simple wool dress unlike the silky layers of the nobility but also unlike the trousers of the commoners. Her short hair hung loose, her wrists empty of jewelry except for a strange braid of tawny hair. But her hands and face didn’t hold the rough wear of a working woman.

“Orra.”

“Where did you come from? And how did you… come back to life?”

“I wasn’t dead. It nearly killed me, but it didn’t.” She glanced away, her eyes flashing with pain. “I won’t do it again.”

It wasn’t an answer, but it might be all he was going to get right now. He had every intention of tracing down that light. It didn’t matter if it went to Bamboo Island or all the way to Andel. Dragging this woman along might slow him down, but if they had goals that aligned…if she knew more than he did…

“What will we find there?”

She closed her eyes, exhaustion lining every feature on her face. “The things we seek.”

He frowned, her answer putting him on edge. “How do you know what I’m looking for?”

She gestured to his books without opening her eyes. “Your research. You may have tried to keep it quiet, but word gets around.”

The words sent a chill down his back.

“It’s a good thing,” she reassured him. “We can help each other.”

“So we’re looking for the same thing?” He wasn’t going to name it if she wasn’t. The thought felt petty, like a game he and Riveran might have played as children, but it also felt prudent.

She grunted, maybe a laugh that her body didn’t have enough energy to produce. “You can’t possibly be looking for the same thing as me.”

Coughing spasms wracked her body, and he offered her water again. She trusted him with her frail body, but not with her knowledge—which meant she knew too much or too little.

He reached out, tuning in to her mind, attempting to find a memory that could give him a sense of whether he could trust her. But her mind was blank, her memories blocked so thoroughly it was like she had none.

“What is it you think the light meant?” she finally asked.

They stared each other down for a few moments. He should be skeptical of a stranger, but her magic outstripped his by miles. She wasn’t a simple thief or squatter, which meant he needed to find out what all she knew. Finally, Gaeren threw caution to the wind. “Someone used a starbridge.”

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